USACE - Detroit District - Large Scale Spatial Data

Be sure to view a full University of Wisconsin Sea-Grant HTML Report on this topic available through The LMPDS Document Clearinghouse or by clicking the links found within this page.

View A PowerPoint Presentation on Status of 1999 Activities.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) Sea Grant has been continuing work on the acquisition and integration of large-scale spatial data for use in hazard damage assessments of the coastal areas of Wisconsin. In 1998, UW prepared an inventory of existing mapping sources. This included digital parcel mapping, planimetric and/or topographic mapping, land use, land cover, soils data, and digital orthophotography. This inventory identified mapping coverage gaps in the 11 counties bordering Lake Michigan in Wisconsin and noted if mapping was in the "works" and gave an estimate on completion, or noted if no mapping exists at all. Cost estimates for filling data gaps in the mapping coverage identified along the shoreline were also provided. Details on this inventory can be found via the UW Sea Grant web page.

In 1999, UW focused on the acquisition of existing digital parcel mapping, planimetric and topographic mapping, land use, land cover, soils data, and digital orthophotography for the 1000 meter Lake Michigan coastal study area. UW has also focused on the integration of this data into a common coordinate system (UTM Zone16, meters) and file format (latest Arc/Info) to support the Lake Michigan Potential Damages Study. Work on this task was summarized at the April and September 1999 LMPDS On-Site Workshops by Dave Hart of UW Sea Grant and may be viewed in a PowerPoint presentation on the LMPDS Web site under "Presentations."

View A PowerPoint Presentation: Integrating Digital Parcel Mapping for Use in Coastal Management Along the Lake Michigan Shore of Wisconsin.

In 2000, UW continued their work in acquiring and integrating digital parcel mapping from local governments for a 1000-meter zone along the Lake Michigan coast in Wisconsin. Issues that UW has confronted and worked through include file documentation, software format, compilation method, coordinate system and datum, data structure, and status of coding digital parcel mapping with parcel numbers to allow integration with tax roll databases. Through August 2000, digital parcel mapping has been integrated for 490 of 540 Lake Michigan shoreline miles in Wisconsin (91 percent). A linkage between tax roll data and digital parcel mapping has been made for 380 of 540 Lake Michigan shoreline miles (71 percent). This has allowed for analysis of economic damages along the Wisconsin shoreline to begin. Efforts to complete the integration and linkages of digital parcel mapping and tax roll databases on Lake Michigan coastal areas in Wisconsin will continue in 2001.

More detailed information and additional geospatial themes are readily available at the UW Sea Grant Web site referenced above.

Another task that UW began in 2000 was the acquisition of historic photos dating back to the early 1930s. The photos will be used to delineate historic bluff lines for use in model calibration and verification. This task will be completed in 2001.

As a step in that process, UW obtained digital orthophotos based on 1998/1999 NAPP photos for the coastal areas of Marinette and Oconto counties from the NRCS. This completed first generation coverage for the entire Lake Michigan coast of Wisconsin. UW created a Web site based on the MIT Orthophoto Server (http://ortho.mit.edu) to provide access to DOQQs for the Lake Michigan coast of Wisconsin.

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